I know one of the big things you did after you were hired was, between you and your staff, took a tour of Colorado high schools. Can you take me through why you thought that was important, and what you think you’ve accomplished with that so far?

“On a personal note, I actually recruited the state of Colorado for five years when I was at Montana State. I would leave the day after Thanksgiving and come up here to these offices and sit up here with Sonny Lubick’s staff and look at film throughout the state, and talk to a couple of guys who recruited the state, and kind of get some leads. Shoot, I would spend — I think the month of December, I spent a heck of a lot more time here than I did in Bozeman. (Laughs.)

“So with that, I got to know a lot of guys in the state and coaching, and realized, you know, there’s really good players here. Part of it is really the developmental part. They don’t really have spring ball. There’s a lot of that, having now recruited in the South for so long, too, you can see those guys are developed a little bit more. And so, really doing the research is important, No. 1. … Our mission is the educate those in the state. I feel like, first and foremost, we’ve got to give (them) an opportunity to come to such a great place.

“The other thing is, there’s been so many guys leaving the state. Right, wrong or indifferent, I know what we have to offer them, and if they want to come back here and work, and do that kind of stuff — life after football — we can give them those opportunities or open some doors because of our alumni that are scattered throughout. We do have such a strong alumni base, obviously, down in Denver, and, really, what you find out, throughout the state. I think it’s important that we start here, and then fill in after.”

Some college coaches in the state, in the past, have had the mindset of “We’ll use Colorado to get two or three guys,” but it sounds like you want to make it a priority.

“Oh, yeah. It’s the No. 1 priority. And it always will be. With that, we’re getting everybody out, and we’ll do it again in the spring. We’ll do it every year, we’ll get people out to every school. Because you just never know. Growing up in Montana, you find out that there might be somebody that’s playing 8-man football somewhere. And if you’ve built the relationship — you see so many of these schools, and, ‘Yeah, we’re going to recruit it down in here,’ but they show up one time because they have some superstar there. Right? But they aren’t here servicing. And what I mean by that is that it’s sales. So when they do have a guy, because of that relationship, you know what? You have a pretty good chance to get them.”

The last couple of years, we’ve had kids go to the Big Ten, the SEC — Auburn, and so on. Are those the type of kids you want to aim to keep home?

“Absolutely. They’re the first. They’re the Division I players. As I took this job — look, those are the kind of guys that should be at Colorado State. And that’s the direction that we’re headed. It doesn’t matter to me if they’ve got an offer from Alabama or USC. They should be looking at Colorado State, because we’ve got some great things down here. We’re not backing down from that.”

You had, for instance, a guy like (Highlands Ranch graduate) Joe Hansley play a pretty big role for you as a freshman. Do you think that can be a selling point in terms of, “Look at what this local kid did?”

“Well, here was the Gatorade player of the year, I believe. And (Fountain-Fort Carson grad) Kevin Davis, who started for us at linebacker. I mean, this was a great player and is a great player and was recruited by the Pac-12 schools and some Big 12 schools.

“I mean, once they came up here and saw what we have and how we can give them the resources to be successful for the rest of their lives — it’s not just the football part, it’s the impact that Colorado State can have on them to help them be successful well beyond their days. Because football’s not forever. Those are the things that really are attractive when they sit down and really look at it.

“We’ve got some other guys that are going to be really good players from this state in last year’s recruiting class that I redshirted and are going to play important roles. With that, we’re still going to have to go out and fill in outside when you’re talking about high-caliber Division I football.”

In past years, from (Lubbock’s recruiting) classes, he would get as many as nine or 10 in-state kids. Do you think that’s something you can get back to, or is that going to depend on the year and the talent?

“That’s year-to-year. You never know. I mean, I don’t put a number count on it, if that makes sense. We have critical criteria in order to be successful at the position for every single position on the field. Obviously, first and foremost, we look at those players before we look at anybody else. And we’ve got a great jump on the juniors and sophomores because of how we looked at and went throughout the state.

“Now, those relationships, you would hope, pay off in the future of your recruiting in-state. That’s something I did find out. The one thing you found out recruiting in some of the other areas is discovering some of these kids that are going to have a chance — and, obviously, as they develop over time, if you just come in December of their senior year, you know what? You don’t have time to establish the relationship with the people, the coaches, that kind of thing.

“And, number two, discovering the true character of a kid, which is really important. The way the NCAA now has limited (recruiting), you’ve got to do a lot of research. It’s just like the NFL: character is a huge, huge thing. For us, we want those guys that are not only leaders, good students and guys that are going to contribute to the overall part of your school and your program.”

Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre.

New Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

When you were hired, you mentioned wanting to get out to every high school in the state. Why did you feel that was important?

“We’re going to go out in January the best we can. Right now, we’re kind of scrambling. When May hits, all nine of our coaches will have an area, basically — we’re going to comb the state of Colorado, and we’re going to try to hit every single school in May. The way I’ll do that is we’ll have at least five to six coaches in Colorado and they’ll go out and hit their in-state area first, and then they’re going to go out of state.

“I feel like there’s some very good talent in Colorado and I want to make sure the ones that are BCS players, we make sure we get them. And it’s not just going to be one class. We’re going to work at it.

“And then we’re going to have some traveling camps in the state, and clinics, and make sure we’re out there, and get to know these high school coaches and be able to make sure we get the best players in Colorado to stay in Colorado. I think that’s key for being a successful program, I really do.”

One thing I’ve heard from high school coaches about past in-state college coaches here is they didn’t feel like they had the relationship there.

“Right. That’s what we’re going to try to do. The only way you can get relationships is see them eye-to-eye and shake their hand and talk to them. It’s not a phone call. And then have availability for us to be available around the state with our camps and our clinics and just be out there as much as we can be. And that’s how you do it.

“That’s what we’re going to do. We can’t do it all in one night, but that’s our plan, and we will execute that plan.

So it sounds like you’re going to prioritize getting out to see the Colorado kids before you go out-of-state.

“Yes, we are. We definitely are. We’re going to see them the first week we go out, and then go from there. They’re going to understand that they’re important to us, and it’s important that we get the ones that we’re excited about and know that they can play here. We’re going to make sure we comb our state and evaluate everybody we should evaluate and go from there.”